Gay marriage bill passes Britain's House of Commons

A bill to legalise gay marriage in Britain has passed the country's parliament and will now go the country's upper house, the House of Lords, for consideration.

Members of the House of Commons broke out in applause as the result was read out but the bill is likely to face stiff opposition when it is debated in the House of Lords next month.

MPs voted 366 to 161 in favour of the bill.

The vote followed a marathon debate on Monday in which Mr Cameron was forced to make a deal with the opposition Labour party to defeat a bid by his own rebellious Conservative MPs to scupper the bill.

Right-wing Tories had proposed an amendment to allow heterosexual couples to form civil partnerships - a move that was condemned by Mr Cameron's office as a "wrecking amendment" that would have delayed the introduction of the new law.

Although the motion was easily defeated with Labour's help, the depth of the Conservatives' divisions were made clear when 121 Tory MPs backed a separate plan to allow officials to opt out of carrying out gay marriage. It too was defeated.

Britain has seen none of the mass protests over gay marriage held across the channel in France, which last weekend became the 14th country in the world to legalise it.

Some 54 per cent of Britons are in favour of allowing same-sex couples to marry, according to a YouGov poll for the Sunday Times.

But lawmakers are sharply divided.

Conservative former minister Norman Tebbit stoked the row on Tuesday by claiming gay marriage could result in a lesbian queen giving birth to an heir by artificial insemination.

"When we have a queen who is a lesbian and she marries another lady and then decides she would like to have a child and someone donates sperm and she gives birth to a child, is that child heir to the throne?" he told The Big Issue magazine.

Internal division

The rancour over gay marriage within the Conservatives has heaped further pressure on Mr Cameron, who is already facing bitter opposition from many Tories over his leadership style and a promised referendum on Britain's EU membership.

The prime minister was forced to send a mass email to Conservative activists after an unnamed ally was reported to have called them "mad, swivel-eyed loons".

"I am proud of what you do. I would never have around me those who sneered or thought otherwise," he wrote.

The "loons" comment fuelled accusations that Mr Cameron is out of touch with traditional Tories and that the prime minister surrounds himself with people from his own privileged background.

Party co-chairman Lord Andrew Feldman, who strongly denies rumours he was behind the comment, was a schoolmate of Mr Cameron's at the elite Eton College.

Many Conservative supporters fear that with a general election two years away, Mr Cameron's backing for gay marriage is driving traditional Tory voters to the UK Independence Party (UKIP).

The anti-immigration, anti-EU party is a fast-rising force in British politics and made strong gains in local elections last month.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage said he would not expel members for voicing "old-fashioned" views about homosexuality, after reports that one of the party's candidates branded gay sex "disgusting" on an online forum.

A new poll suggested that support for the Conservatives has slumped to 24 per cent - just two per cent ahead of UKIP - although a different poll put the Tories on 31 per cent.

Mr Cameron's promise to hold a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union after the next election and by 2017 was intended to mitigate the impact of UKIP.

But last week, more than 100 Tory MPs took the unprecedented step of backing a motion expressing regret that the government's legislative plans for the year contained no guarantee of such a vote.